would not recognize of our rights what the Negus had recognized.

She said: The Negus then marched out—between the two forces lay the breadth of the Nile—and the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Who will go out, witness the battle, and bring us the news?”

Zubayr said, “I will,” and he was the youngest among them. They inflated a waterskin for him, fastened it to his chest, and he swam upon it until he reached the bank of the Nile where the two armies were to meet. He then went on until he stood among them.

She said: We prayed to Allah that He grant the Negus victory over his enemy and firm authority in his land. The affairs of Abyssinia were stabilized for him (1), and we remained with him in the best of dwellings (2) until we returned to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ (3).

In Rabiʿ al-Awwal of the seventh year after the Hijrah, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ wrote a letter to the Negus inviting him to Islam and entrusted it to ʿAmr ibn Umayyah al-Damrī (4). When the letter was read to him, he embraced Islam and said, “If I could find a way to reach him, I would surely go to him.” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ also wrote asking him to marry Umm Ḥabībah bint Abī Sufyān to him; the Negus did so and, on the Prophet’s behalf, gave a dowry of four hundred dinars. The one who concluded the marriage contract was Khālid ibn